Dahlia variabilis cultivar Carolina Orange.
The present Invention relates to a new and distinct cultivar of Dahlia plant, botanically known as Dahlia variabilis, commercially referred to as a pot-type Dahlia, and hereinafter referred to by the name xe2x80x98Carolina Orangexe2x80x99.
The new Dahlia is a naturally-occurring whole plant mutation of the Dahlia variabilis cultivar Ruicaro, disclosed in U.S. Plant Pat. No. 11,566. The new Dahlia was discovered and selected in 1997 by the Inventor as a single flowering plant within a population of plants of the cultivar Ruicaro in a controlled environment in Hillegom, The Netherlands. The selection of this plant was based on its dark orange-colored ray florets.
Asexual reproduction of the new Dahlia by vegetative tip cuttings was first conducted in Hillegom, The Netherlands in 1998. Asexual reproduction by cuttings has shown that the unique features of this new Dahlia are stable and reproduced true to type in successive generations.
The cultivar Carolina Orange has not been observed under all possible environmental conditions. The phenotype may vary somewhat with variations in environment such as temperature, daylength and light intensity, without, however, any variance in genotype.
The following traits have been repeatedly observed and are determined to be the unique characteristics of xe2x80x98Carolina Orangexe2x80x99. These characteristics in combination distinguish xe2x80x98Carolina Orangexe2x80x99 as a new and distinct pot-type Dahlia:
1. Upright, uniformly mounded and compact plant habit.
2. Freely branching, full and dense plants.
3. Short response time.
4. Dark orange-colored ray florets with bright yellow-colored disc florets.
Plants of the new Dahlia differ from plants of the cultivar Ruicaro and the cultivar Carolina Burgundy, U.S. Plant Patent application Ser. No. 10/080,599 filed concurrently, primarily in ray floret coloration.
Plants of the new Dahlia can be compared to plants of the cultivar Maryland, disclosed in U.S. Plant Pat. No. 11,602. However, in side-by-side comparisons conducted in De Lier, The Netherlands, plants of the new Dahlia differed from plants of the cultivar Maryland in the following characteristics:
1. Plants of the new Dahlia flower about one to two weeks earlier than plants of the cultivar Maryland.
2. Plants of the new Dahlia had smaller leaves than plants of the cultivar Maryland.
3. Plants of the new Dahlia had smaller inflorescences than plants of the cultivar Maryland.
4. Plants of the new Dahlia and plants of the cultivar Maryland differed in ray floret coloration.